MY FAMILY WILL START THE HOLIDAYS THIS WEEK END MY WIFES DAD IS HOME FROM TEXAS FOR A WEEK SO WE WILL HAVE CHRISMAS ON SAT THEN CHRISMAS EVE AT MY MOM AND DAD CHRISMAS DAY AT HOME WE WILL HAVE A BIG DINNER HERE I AM OFF WORK FOR 2 WEEKS THEY SHUT THE HOLE FACTORY DOWN WE ARE VERY SLOW MY FAMILY WISH ALLIKE HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BE SAFE

After one of my busiest years, I FINALLY get some vacation time... I'm off until Jan 5th!

We're just having a normal old fashioned Christmas... Elie is going to crap when she gets the pogo stick she's been asking for... Even though I told her no friggen way... That's what cute little girls can get their daddies to do, I guess.

I must add:Happy Holidays to all! The kiting community makes the Christmas family so much fuller!Hope the holidays and New Year bring you all... Good health and Happiness!And a quick spring to fly again!

Hope to see some of you "brave ones" here for the Cool Fool Festival!

[align=center]"When the power of love becomes more important than the love of power, then there will be peace"[/align][align=center]-Jimi Hendrix[/align]

Happy holidays to everyone! We just got out internet fixed, after it being down forever; brother!

i'm still home with Marla. She is slowly improving, but is still in considerable pain... but nothing like it was in days past. She is still, unfortunately, with a gastrostomy tube, getting enteral feedings... so her X-mas dinner is going to flow far from her taste buds. She's hoping that soon she will pass the video swallow tests and then get to eat again like the rest of us. Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Nursing staff continue to come to our home on a regular basis... which is so very nice.

i continue to kite fly every day when the weather is good... which is never. We were out with regard to electricity for 3 days... which really sucked. i had a generator that i purchased a few years back, and that came in very handy. But the house was still cold to a large degree, due to the very frigid temperatures. i had to partially heat the garage also, for the parrots, and that took away from some of the heat to the house. i lost a lot of tropical fish; all the fish in the garage died; the one's in the family room are 80% gone; the one's in the living room are 100% alive so far (though they do have ick, which i am treating). Last night, i took all of the gas out of the generator, put a couple of teaspoons of oil in the spark plug hole, cleaned it up a lot and put it away in storage again. About 10 minutes after doing that, the electricity went out again! We both felt like crying! It came on again though, after a little over an hour!

The other night, i was watching TV, at around 1AM... and heard a big crash by our house. A small truck hit the guard rail and landed in our front yard! i asked the fellow involved if he was OK... and i subsequently asked if he wanted me to call the police. He stated that he was OK, but that he would rather not have the police called! When i heard that, i immediately went into the house and called the police! i figured that not wanting the police called probably meant that there was a very good reason to call them. The police told me to keep my door locked and not to answer it. i went back out and told him that the police were called... and that one cannot get towed without the police involved (in our area) anyway. Initially, he wanted me to drive him to Martinton; and i stated that i did not care to due to the freezing rain and the terrible conditions. The police sure kept him a very long time in the squad car... even after his truck had been towed away.

i hope that all of you have a great and "bright" Christmas and New Year and Hanuka! i'm about to give our dog Gabby a Bow Wow Skunk Beanie Toy... it crinkles and squeaks! She has more toys than most kids... and gets infatuated with them for a week or two... then they go into the "just another toy" category, and fail to excite her excessively! Kind of like some of you guys with a lot of your kites!... so don't laugh too hard at Gab! She eats meat like you guys too... you have a lot in common, actually.

Tom P.
Illinois_______ (excerpt from E. E. Cummings: "How many winds make wonderful... and is luck The skeleton of life")